NEWS FLASH

Thursday, March 22, 2012

EXPANSION OF
POSTAL AND TELECOM CIRCLES

There is no proposal for expansion of Postal Circles.
However, modernization of Post Offices in all Postal Circles is underway.

The Government has initiated a project
called “Project Arrow” for modernization of Postal Circles across the
country. The project envisages upgradation of post offices in urban and rural
areas both in terms of upgrading and enhancing the quality of service in
‘core areas’ and improving their ‘look and feel’. The project aims at
creating a conducive and friendly work environment both for the staff and the
customers visiting the Post Offices, providing connectivity, and improving
the service quality levels in the core business areas.

The Government has also approved a proposal for IT modernization of
all Post Offices of Department of Posts.

During 2011-12, for computerization of Post Offices, an amount of
Rs.90.39 crores approximately was spent. For Project Arrow, during 2012-13,
an outlay of Rs.84.00 crores has been earmarked to cover 500 post offices
throughout the country.

The Government has approved the
Modernization Project for a total plan out lay of Rs.1877.2 crores. The
Modernization Project of the Department of Posts includes computerization of
all the non-computerised Post Offices in the country including supply of
Rural ICT Hardware devices and peripherals in the Branch Post Offices in the
Rural Areas, development of scalable, integrated and modular software
covering all the operations of Department of Posts and establishment of
required IT infrastructure. The implementation of this Project has been
proposed through eight RFPs. The functional RFPs are at various stages of
finalization. The rollout of the Project is expected to be completed by 2014.
Thereafter, Circle-wise allocation will be made

As regards Telecom Circles, the
information is being collected and will be presented immediately on being
made available by Department of Telecommunications.

This information was given in Lok
Sabha today by Shri Sachin Pilot, the Minister of State, Communication and
Information Technology in response to a question.